The SCAE gets the origin experience on the recent SCAE site trip to Costa Rica and Panama

14th March 2009

Visit Coordinator and SCAE Past President Colin Smith reports in depth on the recent SCAE site trip to Costa Rica and Panama, which offered an ideal opportunity to see the growing and processing—and meet the people behind them—in two important speciality coffee origins.

The Barcelo Palacio Hotel in San Jose in late January was the meeting place for 20 SCAE members from 12 different countries who were about to experience, first hand, the growing and preparation of speciality coffee in Costa Rica and Panama.

COSTA RICA

First, we met our Costa Rican guide and translator, Stanley Pacheco, who, along with Warner Villegas from Costa Rican coffee institute ICAFE, was to look after us for the week. Stanley rigged us up with earpieces to hear his simultaneous translation of the voices of the people we were to meet during our time in Costa Rica.

Our hosts—ICAFE, the Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica and Sintercafe—had arranged a very full programme of visits to coffee production mills and farms, with definitive tasting sessions to experience the results of work undertaken in these places. We were the first mixed group of European visitors to be entertained by the coffee associations of Costa Rica and Panama. (It is a special time at ICAFE, too, as this year it celebrates its 75th anniversary.)

Many members of the SCAE group had little experience of this part of the coffee story—growing, processing and quality control at origin—so were keen to collect valuable knowledge to help them understand the subject in order to pass it on to their customers in Europe. Our hosts were very thorough, and gave us clear descriptions of the processes required to produce excellent coffee for the export market.

The tour started at CoopeAtenas mill in the West Valley, one of Costa Rica’s eight specific coffee growing regions. En route to the estate, Stanley pointed out the area, near the famous Poas volcano, that had recently suffered a major earthquake with considerable loss of life and a curtailment of the tourist industry.

The President of the Board of ICAFE, Guido Vargas, greeted us at the mill, and Past President Colin Smith replied on behalf of the SCAE, to thank ICAFE for the work and preparation it had made for our trip.

CoopeAtenas is a large production mill, and also oversees a whole network of activities within the area, including a petrol station, a supermarket and many other community activities. Mario Arroyo, Promotion Manager of ICAFE, gave us an illustrated talk on Costa Rican coffee. No robusta production is allowed, by law, he explained, and since 1999, there have been restrictions on water usage for coffee treatment. 5% of the population works at the harvest, with salaries fixed by law; and producers receive 85% of the international price. The Q market (an alternative, higher quality market channel developed by the Coffee Quality Institute) has assured traceability for all of the country’s quality coffees. Coffee accounts for 6% of the national GDP, and there are 50,000 coffee producers, supplying 118 mills. ICAFE itself was set up to regulate the growers and the mills, ensuring the quality sold to exporters and to roasters. The main coffee varieties grown are Catuaí, Caturra and C.R.85. We saw some of these varieties in the mill’s nursery, the same coffee grown on the adjacent plantation.

A guide to milling

To the uninitiated, the processing of coffee after picking should be explained. When the picked cherries, (which when ripe can be red or yellow) are delivered by the farmer to the mills (called beneficios), they are first measured in a container called a fanega that holds 45 kg, a standard weight known as a quintal. This amount equals about 20 carillas, the receptacle which brings pickers $2 per 2.5 kg box—and they would normally pick 20 boxes a day.

At the mill, the cherries are then put into vats of water, which separate the heavier, quality cherries from the floaters, which are despatched for other uses. Pumped into depulping machines, the mucilage is removed from the two seeds and then they are dried to become pergamino or parchment coffee, covered by a fine papery shell. Different methods are used for this process and throughout the trip we saw a great deal of experimenting taking place with various types of machinery, all aiming to reduce the water used in the process.

During processing, the coffee pulp is siphoned off for recycling into humus for organic fertiliser. After the initial sorting, there may still be some unwanted lower qualities within the coffee, particularly because of unripe green beans. (This was seen at the time of the year we were visiting, because it was the end of the season.) To separate these undesirable beans, the wet parchment is dropped onto rotating sieves, which allow the smaller beans to go through while the larger ones stay on the outside to be removed.

The clean parchment then goes through various methods of drying. Sun drying is considered to produce the best flavour, increasing the coffee’s acidity in the bean and parchment will stay outside on paved terraces or African Beds (waist-high drying tables) for 3 to 5 days. This is a relatively expensive process, as it requires labour to turn the coffee constantly for consistent drying. In larger mills, or when the conditions are wet outside, the coffee is dried in huge rotating dryers or guadiolas. These drums are heated by burning hulled parchment (the papery covering removed from the processed beans) or wood trimmings from coffee tree pruning. The dryers’ 55°C temperature reduces the moisture content of the parchment to 12%, in about 22 hours.

All the coffees are carefully annotated to show which of the various farms produced them and which method of production was used. Then the dried parchment is either put into large vats (wooden ones are said to be better than the new round, metal variety), or bagged into 45 kg sacks and stacked to rest for at least 12 weeks to mature. This resting process settles the flavour of the coffee, reducing the grassy acidity found in very freshly picked beans.

Parchment coffee is hulled only when it is sold for shipping by the exporter, and then the yellowish parchment shell is removed by a grater mechanism and the finished green coffee bean passes onto a grading table. This table is angled and has furrows, which enable, through vibration, the larger beans to move upwards and the smaller ones to fall to the bottom. At the base of the table, are a series of pipes fill sacks of the varying bean sizes. In larger mills, at this stage the coffee is sorted by an electronic machine that uses ultraviolet light to identify defects. The green beans are now ready to be sent to the docks for containerisation and export.

Concern for sustainability

The CoopeAtenas mill processes the coffee of approximately 1,200 producers’ covering 2,000 hectares, but the average size farm is only around four hectares, allowing careful management by the farmers. The altitude of the farms is in the region of 1,200m, and the farmers produce corn and beans rear beef rearing as well as growing coffee.

The area’s coffees are also certified by Utz, Fairtrade and Starbucks’ C.A.F.E. Practices, and the concern for sustainability and fair practice was reflected in all of the establishments that we visited. The mills would process at night, when electricity was cheaper, and a lot of care was taken over the use of water, which, after the milling processes was passed through a sewage plant to clean it. Polysaccharides were used to solidify solids for reprocessing as fertilisers, and the wastewater was filtered to clean it for recycling into the rivers.

We drove to Coopalmares for lunch, after which Guido Vargas and Juan Carlos Alvarez welcomed us and took us around the mill. Being higher into the mountains, this mill dealt with smaller quantities from the 1,250 farmers of the locality. The hand picked, clean coffee cherries are delivered and processed on the same day, because if the coffee is left longer, it will dry out and spoil. The farmer receives more money for quality coffee—up to $10 per fanega—and the cooperative system gives 9% of the profit back to the producer through ICAFE. There is competition from private mills to the cooperative system, so the cooperatives work to give more profit back to the farmer. We saw some of the community work being delivered by the cooperative, with the Dental Service Clinic treating workers in one of the barns.

This mill aims to use little or no water in its processing, and at present has reduced its usage from 800 to 200 litres per fanega. Meanwhile, worm farms were biodegrading the pulp, converting it to fertiliser.

At Coopalmares we saw for the first time some pulped natural coffee being sun dried. This process requires only the skin of the cherry to be removed before sun drying, leaving the parchment a speckled brown colour when dry. The effect is to produce a sweeter coffee in the green bean.

We concluded our tour with a tasting of the various coffees produced at the mill, in an effort to identify the varying flavours that resulted from the different processing methods. This first tasting created some worried looks among the group, most of whom had not used the scoring form before. With a brief explanation, however, we soon got under way, and by the end of the trip we had become quite expert at identifying acidity, body and sweetness!

Local colour at the bullfight

In the evening, we visited the village of Palmares, where the annual Civic Festival was taking place, with a big fair dominating the centre of the town, and much food and drink on offer. Soon, though, we were watching the bullfighting event as guests of ICAFE. This was a fun event where the bull was not killed, but was first ridden by the local young men before getting its revenge by chasing them around the ring. It was clear that the bulls had the upper hand, and seemed to have gained from past experience, by being able to identify a certain person, then to chase him until he clambered up the walls of the ring to safety.

A late return to the hotel did not encourage our early rising on the next day, when we were scheduled to visit the San Diego mill, at Desamparados in the Central Valley. This is the home of Volcafe processing for Tres Rios and Tarrazu coffees; and here, Max Gurdian, General Manager, met us. Donning our hard hats, we saw the processes, which of course comply with all the certification programmes. Here technology moves onto another level: fermentation of the coffee takes place without water, and concludes when the PH level and temperature reach a certain level, in about 6-8 hours. Volcafe has reduced its water consumption dramatically, and from the wastewater, which is aerobically processed, it produces organic matter: biogas and alcohol are all recyclable by-products of their production.

As sun dried coffee has a better cup quality, the mill dries the majority of the parchment in greenhouses, spreading out the coffee to no more than 5 cm depth and turning the drying parchment with hand- and tractor-driven rakes. Other coffees are mechanically dried in huge guadiolas, which hold 8,000 kg and are automatically temperature controlled. Volcafe markets three main brands: Coral, which is all sun dried, Magnolia, which is 50% mechanically and 50% sun dried, and Jaguar, a coffee that is milled and then dried again. At the end of the tour we tasted the various products for our appraisal.

San Diego Mill took us to lunch at a restaurant, where we were entertained by the small local band Tico Linda and where we sampled delicacies including sausages, pork, plantain, maize pancakes and local sauces, followed by cold rice pudding. After saying our farewells, we moved on to the next visit, at the Cooplibertad mill.

Here, Edgar Zuniga showed us around, and, like the San Diego Mill, Cooplibertad was aspiring to full sustainability in all it processes, working towards Fairtrade certfication to add to those for Rainforest Alliance and Utz that it already holds. The mill’s selected coffees (those picked over 1,300 metres) are dried on African tables, which take greater care of the coffee beans as a result of being hand turned during the drying process. The treatment methods and traceability here have won awards in government schemes to create more economic sustainability. Evelyn Rodriguez was our gracious hostess for coffee and cakes, while we had an illustrated talk on the coffee produced in the Central Valley (Heredia). This year, we were told, too much rain has extended the season and, as a result, the plants have suffered.
 
We spent a most enjoyable evening as guests of Grace Mena at her home in Heredia. She owns Deli Café, a private exporter that has interests also in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama. After an introduction, we were able to taste some of her coffees, and then we were treated to an excellent spread of barbecued meats and assorted salads. All of us had a very pleasant time.

Swinging from the trees

The next morning was the start of our “fun day,” which included swinging through the trees on the Canopy Tour in San Ramon. We again put on helmets, but this time with straps, karabiners and pulleys to attach ourselves to the wires that would transport us high above the jungle floor. There was a little trepidation among the group members at first, but, after a gentle start, we were all enjoying the thrills of swooping, ape-like, between the trees. It was a fantastic way of experiencing  the spectacular Costa Rican natural world.

After lunch, it was back to coffee, when we visited the small farm and micro mill belonging to Ricardo Perez, Helsar de Zarcero. For the first time, the group was able to get among the coffee trees and see coffee cherries ripening in abundance. Three families run the organic farm, which is situated at an altitude of 1,700m. The small mill, a brand new installation, recycles all waste material for the organic process, and produces 2,000 fanegas of coffee per year. We sampled some of the crisp, clean coffees and had a short talk from Francisco Mena about exporting speciality coffees.

That evening the Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica entertained us at a party at its headquarters in San Jose. During the evening, we met the Association President Arnoldo Leiva Pacheco, who welcomed us, before Carlos gave us a short presentation on the work of the Association. Now it was time for us to thank Francois Castells, Andrea Cespedes and Dinora Gonzales, who had put a lot of work into making our visit such a success. During the meal we were able to meet local members of SCACR.

An idyllic farm in Tarrazu

An even earlier start the next day was necessary for the trip to the Tarrazu area and to the micro farm of Agrivid (La Violeta), at 1,400m altitude. The road wouldn’t take the coach, so trucks carried the group up to the farm, where we saw the whole process laid out before us. The micro mill produces 28 fanegas a day from the organic cherries. Such a lovely setting, high in the mountains, combined with perfect weather evoked a way of life many of us would have aspired to—particularly as much of Europe was covered in snow at this time! Coffee was served in the traditional manner, in a sock filter, and it was enjoyed by all.

It was back down the mountain to the big Coope Tarrazu mill for lunch, and here we were shown around by Carlos Rivera. The area has 228 small producers and the coop counts 2,445 members, generating 60% of the local income. The mill collects the cherry from collection points, and then processes and containerises the final product. It has a capacity of 250 fanegas an hour, making it the biggest in the country. Supporting the locality, the cooperative also provides education for adults and children, having receiving $66,700 from the Fairtrade education programme in 2008, gained from the 10 cents per pound levy.

Our last visit of the day took us again high into the mountains to the Don Mayo micro mill owned by Auxiliadora Bonilla. Here we saw coffee trees growing on very steep mountainsides, something we were to experience again the following week in Panama. The pickers sometimes have to tie themselves to the trees to stop falling down the slopes. The farm (at an altitude between 1,650 and 1,950m) and mill were run by family members, and this was their fourth season achieving 3,000 fanegas. The family derives a second income from the bananas and sugar that are used for shade and protection for the coffee trees. The Don Mayo farm also has advanced technology for testing the size, density and colour of the coffee beans. These higher grown coffees are very suitable for pulped natural or honey coffees.

While we enjoyed a drink and homemade biscuits at the farm, some barista members of the group were able to meet Fernando, an ICAFE trainer. Using these high grown coffee for espresso is a problem due to the high acidity, so the resulting discussion involved recommendations to lower the machine temperature to 93°C and use a coarser grind in order to speed extraction. Mixing with lower grown coffees and fertilising with more potassium were two other methods that were thought likely to improve the final cup as well.

The last day of our Costa Rican visit was spent at the CICAFE research station, where we started with a cupping session to compare the coffees from the different regions of Costa Rica. Here we met some farmers who had travelled for up to five hours to bring their coffees for us to try, and we were very grateful that so much effort had been made on our behalf.

The CICAFE facility includes a new mill, which uses various methods of production and trials new equipment. The farm has 10 hectares of land for research and is growing various types of tree, experimenting particularly with varieties suitable for espresso use. The aim overall is to reduce disease and increase cropping, while maintaining flavour, and to create more sustainable varieties with limited use of fertilisers. A small tree in flower attracted the attention of many cameras from our group. Fabian, the agronomist at the facility, enlightened us with many facts about the growing and pruning of the trees.

We got together for lunch and then for a presentation from the Costa Rica baristas. SCAE group members Graziano Chessa from Germany and the UK’s Nancy Scott then gave a short instruction session and offered some tips to the local baristas.

Fond farewells and some press coverage

After drinks and cakes, we said our farewells to our gracious hosts, who had given us such a comprehensive experience of Costa Rican coffee. Our presence in the country did not go unnoticed, either. On January 30, an article appeared in the local Tico Times, including interviews with SCAE group members Andreas Merchant of Germany and Roy Grey of the UK, who stressed the importance of the end user experiencing the conditions and the problems involved in coffee production. We can use this experience, they said, to promote these coffees in our own markets, particularly in this difficult economic climate.

In the evening, Stanley joined us for a final meal and then it was on to a dance to end our stay in Costa Rica, before leaving for Panama in the morning.

PANAMA

Our chartered aircraft took us from San José to David, then by coach to Boquete and the Val Rio Hotel. Volcan Baru, the volcanic mountain rising 3,474 metres, dominates the region’s coffee growing area, with its fertile soils and very steep valleys.

After a quick change, we were whisked off into the high mountains to visit John Collins at Finca Lerida. Most of Panama’s coffee is grown over 1,600m and at Lerida, it goes up to 1,900m. (Above this altitude, coffee cherries thrive less well, and the beans are small and thus not economical to cultivate.) A range of varieties of tree are grown in Panama: Catuaí, Caturra, Bourbon and some exotic varieties, such as Geisha, San Remon, Typica and Mocha. This balance with nature is paramount, with leguminous trees growing among the coffee trees—and producing nitrogen, shade and organic fertilisers for sustainability, as well as  encouraging wildlife to maintain the natural environment.

Lerida farm is 365 hectares and employs 20 permanent workers, increasing to 200 during the picking season, producing 1,200-2,000 bags a year. John Collins is experimenting with the preparation of the coffees to enhance the flavour. He produces naturally dried coffees to allow the sugars to soak into the bean, rests coffee from five months up to three years, and even and freezes green coffee to see the effects of that treatment. To enhance his selection of the best of his speciality coffees, his process has seven different separations of the cherry from the bean. He has even developed part of his farm into a holiday resort running coffee tours and bird watching expeditions—so you can see the native quetzals at 6.00am right on the farm!

At a reception in the evening at Lerida we met the members of the Panama Speciality Coffee Association who had planned and arranged our visit for the next few days: President Wilford Lamastus, Ricardo Koyner, and Rachel and Daniel Petersen. Colin Smith thanked them for their efforts on behalf of the SCAE group. Afterward, while we enjoyed a wonderful steak meal, the rain came down, and indicated we had passed into a different climate to that of Costa Rica.

Small quantity, high quality

In a small valley with steep sides, we visited the Don Pachi estate, the farm of Francisco Serracin, where we saw tall Typica trees and other varieties like Mundo Novo, Bourbon, Catuaí and the rambling Geisha. The small crop makes the coffee expensive to produce. Only very ripe beans are harvested to gain the maximum from the crop. The aim, through very careful husbandry and specialisation is to produce a higher quality coffee gaining a much higher price. In fact, Panama only produces 200,000 bags of coffee a year.

Our next stop was at Ricardo Koyner’s Kotowa Plantation, which comprises four farms, each in its own valley with a different microclimate that gives a slightly different taste to each of the coffees. Here in Panama, where there is more rainfall, they must use less shade, as mildew can become a problem.

To encourage pickers to come during harvest season, the farms offer housing, education and food for the children. The Panamanians live permanently on the farms, as full time staff, while the pickers are Gnobe Indians from the reserves, who live as nomads, moving from area to area as crop picking work becomes available. The pay is 50% higher than regular salaries, to assure quality throughout the production. Processing on the farms aims to reduce water usage, and mechanical drying is predominant in the wetter areas. Careful management will yield a return of 80-85% of quality coffee beans.

We visited the oldest coffee mill in Panama, built by Ricardo’s great grandfather. This all-wood construction served as an interesting museum of early methods of washing and drying the coffee. Café Kotowa is also a well-known chain of coffee shops in Panama, and the business is supplemented as well with a timber operation and the tourist trade.

A visit to the award-winning Esmeralda

Our next visit was to Hacienda Esmeralda. We had met the owners, the Petersen family, in Copenhagen last year when they won the Lifetime Achievement Award for their work in developing Geisha coffee. This variety was brought over from Ethiopia crossed with a developed variety from Costa Rica as a means of preventing the virulent coffee fungal disease known as  ‘rust’, and introduced to Panama in 1963. Geisha coffee is difficult to grow, but it is particularly suited to higher regions (of around 1,700m). Hacienda Esmeralda produces 4,000 bags a year, of which only 200 are Geisha, the much prized type that produces an unusually sweet taste in the cup.

Starting at the top of the plantation we had a pleasant walk through the coffee trees, passing the experimental area where many different varieties were on trial. There are many tall shelter trees to counteract the high winds that are common at this altitude.

After lunch with Price and Susan Petersen at Finca Esmeralda, we visited the Beneficio Ruiz. The Ruiz family have run the mill since 1936, to produce 500 quintals of coffee a day. They use water processing to separate the qualities and a pre-drying method before the main drying that reduces the moisture content from 42% to 12%, prior to resting the coffee for 12 weeks.

Returning to Boquete, we tasted some of the coffees that we had experienced during the day at the Garrido Lab in Casa Ruiz. The Geisha was the most notable, with such a different profile to the other coffees, that it stood in a class of its own. The other very distinctive type was the so-called “honey” coffee, by virtue of having an extraordinarily sweet liquor.

Finca Don Pepe—only a short distance from the hotel the next morning—a family-operated for four generations now run by Tony Vasquez. Here we saw the mill that uses both sun and mechanical drying. The lovely setting allowed tiers of African tables to be placed uniformly up the hill. The farm of 80 hectares at 1,500m. has allocated seven hectares to natural forest for ecological development. The farm is constantly experimenting in order to produce the best coffee, and, later this year it is to change its yellow Catuaí to Bourbon and Geisha varieties.

High altitude organic

Climbing high up the mountain, we visited the organic farm of Ricardo Koyner, Finca Kotowa Duncan Organico. The 15-hectare property at 1,800m has a yield about 20% below that of a standard farm. The organic fertiliser (for which 10 bags equate in effectiveness to one bag of chemical fertiliser) has to be transported up the mountain and takes longer to break down and to feed the plant. Disease is a problem as well and is more difficult to remove organically. The cost of production is $2.00-3.00 per pound. However, the ecological benefits are there, in that there is more diversity of animals and plants.

On the way back down the mountain, some Indian pickers greeted us in their living accommodation on the farm.

Finca Elida has been in the Lamastus family for 100 years, and Wilford took us to the fields, where we saw the Indians picking. A great find—demonstrating the region’s ecological diversity—was a baby humming bird in its mud nest, balanced on the branch of a tree. The 65 hectares at Finca Elida are at 1,800 metres and produce a very high quality coffee that is sold to the Japanese market. The cold nights and generally wet evenings extend the ripening time by one month, so creating different flavours in the bean.  

At La Boheme Café we had a talk by Graziano Cruz, who expressed his ideas on the improvement of quality by educating the Gnobe Indians. The Indians are then able to take this knowledge back to their reserves to improve their own production in coffee and other crops. Graziano is an agronomist who is working to promote organic coffee throughout Central America.

Back at the Casa Ruiz roasting plant, we had another tasting session, but this one was very different. Led by Dr Maria Ruiz, we were able to experience the coffees in the format produced by adding water to the liquor after it had stood for 24 hours. Three samples were given, two in glass flasks and one in a cup. The second flask held a lighter roast. We had to try the coffee (170g/litre in a cafetière) first neat, and then with two additions of water, and make comments, regarding the amount of acidity versus bitterness. The lighter roast was more pleasant, as was the cup of coffee. We were later informed that the cup had the same coffee as the dark roast flask, proving that how you serve your coffee is reflected in the way you perceive the taste.

The evening rounded off with a party in the centre of Boquete. Here we met all our hosts and enjoyed some colourful Panamanian dancing from a local group. Gratitude was expressed for the efforts of the SCAP and its members, and we were able to experience in Panama a very different coffee culture to that of Costa Rica. Ricardo Koyner thanked us for coming and hoped we would take back the message of high quality Panama coffees to Europe.

Another side of the volcano

The next morning, we journeyed around to the other side of Volcan Baru, and the village of Volcan. Leaving our luggage at the hotel, we went to the Eleta Estate for a tasting session, led by Clemente Vega. Here the character of the coffees was very different to those on the other side of the mountain, showing how a different climate, even at such a close proximity, can affect the coffee. The farm was only picking the end of the crop (with many green beans) when we were there, to produce a variety used for the home market. The farm also runs ecological tours and has a most interesting museum of butterflies and insects of the region.

On the way to Finca Santa Teresa, we stopped for a lesson in pruning and saw the effects of the three-year pruning system and learned a little about the rust fungus that is a problem in these wet climates.

At Tessie Hartmann’s 90-hectare farm, Santa Teresa, we saw the mill and the lush trees, watered by nine months and three metres of rainfall per year. The steep mountainsides of these areas again required the pickers to rope themselves to the trees in order to prevent themselves from falling down the slopes. On the way to the farm, we also saw some pickers washing in the river—by their own choice, as they had running water and bathing facilities already provided in their lodgings. They also had a communal eating area, a shop, and a school. The pickers’ accommodation will hold 70 itinerant families of three people each during the harvest season. Permanent workers send their children to the local village school.
The farm, like many others we saw, had a secondary income, this time derived from rearing beef cattle.

The next morning, Tessie and Clemente came to the Hotel Bambito for a tasting session of varying coffee preparations from different farms. The coffee here has a nice balance and body, but is very different from the origins that we use most at home. SCAE group member Leonardo Lelli of Italy commented that, as roasters, we must speak two languages, one for the producer and a different one for the customer.

We moved on to the small 10-hectare Bambito Estate, at between 1,600 and 1,800m, which is owned by Rafael Amar. In total five people can run the farm, with 20 families living here, providing 40 pickers. The farm has a policy of providing education, not allowing alcohol, and offering extra pay for those who pick well and come back regularly.

At the Volcan Baru mill, we saw the processing at work and had a tasting in the shop with the local farmers, who had joined us to say farewell. Carl Janson’s family provided lunch, while Graziano again passed on some of his knowledge to the Panamanian baristas. After more thanks for their great hospitality, we were on our way to David for the flight to Panama City.

A day of relaxation took us on a tour to visit the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal, with its museum, and then onto Ancon Hill for a view of the city. Everyone enjoyed free time in Panama City until it was time for their planes home to Europe.

As you will realise from this detailed summary of our visit, this trip gave us a very full programme and a fantastic educational experience, delving into the background of speciality coffee. On behalf of the group I should like to thank all those who helped to organise the programme, our hosts in Costa Rica and in Panama, and to Valerie in SCAE office who was my constant helper.—Colin Smith, Visit Coordinator

Photos by Colin Smith; to see a complete gallery of over 80 of his images from the trip, click here.